Friday, November 23, 2012

2 Goal Lead Erased By the Black Hole

For the second game in a row, the Nanooks hockey team let a 2 goal lead slip away. A sad but unfortunate truth as the Nanooks let the Wildcats right back into the game in Steve Thompson's first start in goal since the loss against Ferris State. A strong first period put the Nanooks up 2-0 with goals from Henderson and Granberg, but a poor defensive showing in the 2nd period allowed the Wildcats to surge ahead with 3 goals in just 5 shots on goal.

In the first, the Nanooks tilted play heavily in their favor for most of the period. The Wildcats top line logged a lot of minutes, probably 11 or 12 minutes in that period, but the 'Nooks wore them out. At 7:19, the Nanooks had some good cycling and got a shot to the front of the net that found Jared Coreau out of position. The puck found the stick of Henderson, who puts it in to an empty net. Later at 15:43, looked like Trevor Campbell kept the puck in against the wall above the faceoff circle, and just threw the puck on net, that Jarret Granberg was able to deflect in. I didn't get a good look at the play but that's how it looked to me...

Down 3-2 in the 3rd, the Nanooks turned up the pressure, but a costly penalty at the end by
Morley had me biting my nails. Turns out it didn't matter as Taranto went beast mode and scored shorthanded on a play created by Jarret Granberg with strong defensive play, getting it back to Trevor Campbell with good vision to find Taranto streaking up, who buried the goal shorthanded to tie the game 3-3 with less than a minute to play.

A few seconds later, Daugherty took what Walt Kyle later described as a "dumb penalty" with just 5 seconds left in regulation gave the Nanooks an early start to a power play with Morley out of the box. However, a costly turnover to NMU captain Scott Macaulay caught Steve Thompson on a bad angle, leaving the side open, and Macaulay buried it for the shorthanded overtime game winning goal. Talk about a back breaker.

Aside from a few miscues in the second period, the Nanooks controlled the game. They held Northern to just 18 shots on goal through nearly 61 minutes, but the four goals allowed mark is what sticks out.

The 'Nooks seek revenge tomorrow, and deserve a better fate. Would love to see the tide change...